Video Game Violence: a Review of the Empirical Literature

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Video Game Violence: a Review of the Empirical Literature Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 407±428, 1998 Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 1359-1789/98 $19.00 ϩ .00 PII S1359-1789(97)00001-3 VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE: A REVIEW OF THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE Karen E. Dill and Jody C. Dill Lenoir-Rhyne College ABSTRACT. The popularity of video games, especially violent video games, has reached phenomenal proportions. The theoretical line of reasoning that hypothesizes a causal relation- ship between violent video-game play and aggression draws on the very large literature on media violence effects. Additionally, there are theoretical reasons to believe that video game effects should be stronger than movie or television violence effects. This paper outlines what is known about the relationship between violent video-game playing and aggression. The available literature on virtual reality effects on aggression is discussed as well. The preponder- ance of the evidence from the existing literature suggests that exposure to video-game violence increases aggressive behavior and other aggression-related phenomena. However, the paucity of empirical data, coupled with a variety of methodological problems and inconsistencies in these data, clearly demonstrate the need for additional research. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd KEY WORDS. Violence, video games, aggression, virtual reality VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE: A REVIEW OF THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE All the time people say to me, ªVlad, how do you do it? How come you're so good at killing people? What's your secret?º I tell them, ªThere is no secret. It's like anything else. Some guys plaster walls, some guys make shoes, I kill people. You just gotta learn the trade and practice until you're good at it.º THIS FICTITIOUS DIALOGUE (Victar, 1994) was written by a video-game fan to describe the skills and motivations of a favorite violent video-game character. It epitomizes the realism with which players view their favorite characters, the genuine admiration they feel toward them, and the lessons they learn about violence from them. The purpose of this article is to outline what is known about the relationship between violent video-game playing and aggression. A narrative review was chosen in lieu of a meta-analytic review because of the dearth of experimental ®ndings. We begin by noting the popularity of video games, particularly violent video games, and discuss insights about video-game violence The authors thank Craig Anderson and Jim Lindsay for comments on an earlier version of this article. Correspondence should be addressed to Karen E. Dill, Department of Psychology, Lenoir-Rhyne College, P.O. Box 7335, Hickory, NC 28603; E-mail: [email protected] 407 408 K. E. Dill and J. C. Dill that can be gleaned from the existing media violence literature. Next, we discuss why violent video games may actually facilitate aggression even more so than other forms of media violence. We then review the published experimental work that has been done in this area, in an attempt to answer the questionЪIs there evidence that short-term exposure to violent video games increases aggressive behavior, thoughts, and feelings?º Next, we review the descriptive data that attempt to link long-term exposure to video games with aggressive behavior and other negative outcomes, particularly decrements in self-esteem. Finally, we discuss conclusions that can be drawn from the present literature, the limitations of the present literature, and implications for future work. POPULARITY OF VIDEO GAMES The popularity of video games has reached phenomenal proportions. The video-game industry's leader, Nintendo, sold an average of three games every second of the 12 years from 1983 to 1995 for a total of one billion games sold. To put that number in some perspective, that is one game for every teenager on earth, or one game for every person in North America, Europe, and Japan, or enough games that, if laid end to end, would reach around the equator two and a half times. More than 40% of American families own a Nintendo system, for which over 2000 separate games have been created (ªNintendo sells one billionth video game,º 1995). Furthermore, Americans spend more money annually on video games than they do on movie tickets. In fact, skyrocketing sales ®gures have recently tempted some of Hollywood's ®nest to abandon their ®lmmaking careers to try to tap this growing gold mine (Elmer-Dewitt, 1993). An industry war is brewing over who can build a bigger, better mousetrap and attract the biggest sales. This war has resulted in increases in technological capabilities that outclass early video games as much as computer word- processing programs outclass stone tablets and chisels as writing tools. In 1987, Chambers and Ascione reported that 100% of the elementary and junior high students they surveyed indicated that they had played a video game at least once. More recently, Funk (1993) surveyed 357 middle-class seventh and eight graders, and found that 75% of them played video games at home at least 1 hour a week. Buchman and Funk (1996) found that fourth- through eighth-grade boys played video games an average of 5 to 10 hours a week, and that fourth- through eighth-grade girls played an average of 3 to 6 hours a week. How Popular Are Violent Video Games? Of special relevance to this review is the relative popularity of violent video games. Recently, America's top selling video game was Killer Instinct, a game that pits two macabre characters (or, more to the point, its two young players) against one another in harsh, bloody combat to the death. The most popular game of 1993 was Mortal Kombat௣, which, as the name implies, involves a ªto the deathº struggle, this time between two humanoid martial arts experts. The popularity of Mortal Kombat's violence resulted in the release of increasingly more bloody and gory versions of the game in 1994 and 1995 (Elmer- Dewitt, 1993). In these ªimprovedº versions, characters can enact special ª®nishing moves,º which involve, among other actions, burning opponents down to their skeletons or removing an opponent's head and connected spine. We should also reference the recent most popular arcade game, Sega's Primal Rage, which involves giant, prehistoric creatures executing ªfatality moves,º such as the face ripper and the jugular bite. Provenzo (1991) recently studied the most popular video games and noted that 40 out of 47 were violent in nature. Braun and Giroux (1989) studied the video games present Video Game Violence 409 in 18 of Montreal's largest arcades. Content analysis of the 21 most popular games indicated that 71% were violent in nature. Of the adolescents surveyed by Funk (1993), 50% reported at least one violent video game among their favorites. Buchman and Funk (1996) had raters classify the favorite games of 900 fourth through eighth graders into six categories: general entertainment, education, fantasy violence, human violence, nonviolent sports, and sports violence. They found that fantasy and human violence games accounted for about 50% of students' favorite games, with girls more likely to report preferring fantasy violence and boys to report preferring human violence games. This preference for violent games remained constant across grade level. The sports violence category, which was part of the survey for only fourth through sixth graders, accounted for approximately 16% to 20% of favorites for boys and 6% to 15% of the favorites for girls. Video Game Addiction One clinician (Klein, 1984) noted that many of the children he counseled were seemingly addicted to video games. Several had skipped classes and spent their lunch money or, alternately, stole or begged money to get their ªvideo game ®xº (p. 396). Zimbardo (as cited in Klein, 1984, p. 397) likened video-game players to junkies, saying, ªVideo game fanatics essentially are cocaine addicts who get an instant rush from an electronic ®x.º Egli and Meyers (1984) found that 13% of the adolescents they surveyed showed what could be described as compulsive behavior toward video games and sacri®ced other attrac- tive activities so that money and time could be devoted to video-game play. Braun and Giroux (1989) called video games, ª. the perfect paradigm for induction of `addictive' behavior,º and noted that this, ª. should be of some concern especially with regard to children as consumersº (p. 101). Given the knowledge that video games in general are very popular and potentially addictive, and that violent video games constitute the lion's share of popular games, it is important to explore the effects of these games on the consumer. How does the existing literature on media violence help us to form theories about the effects of violent video- game play? LESSONS FROM THE TELEVISION VIOLENCE LITERATURE The theoretical line of reasoning that hypothesizes a causal relationship between violent video-game play and aggression draws upon the very large literature on media violence effects. The media violence literature has used a variety of designs, including experimental, static observational, and longitudinal designs to support, via triangulation, the hypothesis that exposure to media violence increases aggressive behavior, cognitions, and affect (Hues- mann & Miller, 1994). Why should violent video games produce similar effects? A similar relationship should exist because the same conceptual variables are involved. Speci®cally, video-game violence effects should operate through elaboration and priming of aggressive thought networks, weakening of inhibitions against antisocial behavior, modeling, reinforce- ment, decreased empathy for others, and the creation of a more violent world view. Each of these mechanisms is discussed below. A competing hypothesis, catharsis, is also discussed. Priming and Elaboration of Aggressive Thought Networks One way that exposure to violent video games may lead to greater aggression is through the construction, elaboration, and priming of aggressive thought networks.
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